Tom Schreiner is Amillenial

Dr. Tom Schreiner recently preached a sermon on Revelation 20 at our church. Regardless of your view on the Millennium, it was a blessing. He preached the gospel!

However, he did spend a few minutes discussing why he is now an Amillenial. He gives 6 reasons:

A future, earthly Millenium is taught nowhere else explicitly in the Bible- a difficulty that all Premillenials accept

Revelation is unquestionably full of recapitulation- so for Revelation 20 to re-tell history from another angle is not surprising

The so-called Millenium texts of the OT are all over Revelation 21-22, not Rev 20- if the earthly Millennium was taught in places like Ezekiel 40-48 and Isaiah 60, you would expect Revelation 20 to allude to them. However Revelation 21-22 allude to them, and everyone agrees the last two chapters of the bible refer to the New Creation!

The debates about the Millenium have always been around- I think Dr. Schreiner was saying Premillenials claim to have the historic position, but there have been forms of Postmillenialism and Amillenialism from the early church fathers period.

Revelation 19 is the death of all the enemies of Christ- it is illogical to believe that all Christ’s enemies are killed at His Second Coming in chapter 19, then there is a 1000 year period where Satan can do nothing, then he’s released for a short time and there are innumerable enemies after the Millennium all of a sudden

It’s the simplest- there is no doubt the simplicity of the Amillenial view is a part of its attractiveness. God does make important things in the Bible understandable to the unlearned

Numbers 3 and 5 are the two strongest arguments. And I would love to hear a reasoned defense by Premillenials against those objections. I am an Amillenial for all these reasons as well.